Clearly named after that little Ajax-Tel Aviv Maccabi soccer adventure in Amsterdam in 2024.
[PJMedia] When President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... ’s lawyer, Robert Garson, floated the idea of asylum for Britannia’s Jews last month, saying "the UK is no longer a safe place for Jews," a natural response was to focus on the likelihood of more terrorist attacks against Jews by radical Moslems. This concern is warranted, as we were reminded last week after the conviction of two men for plotting to murder hundreds of Jews in an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... -inspired attack in Manchester. Sky News contributor Sophie Elsworth, in a segment on the convictions, echoed Garson’s words, saying that the rise of antisemitism in the UK is "incredibly frightening."
Unfortunately, it’s not just ISIS and al-Qaeda that British Jews need to fear. The populist left is engaging in its own form of Jew-hunting. Consider what happened to Jewish comedian Matt Lucas this month. He was harassed by a leftist activist while on an escalator at a Tube station. A man filming a video that he later posted on social media greeted him with the words: "Free Paleostine. Free Paleostine, Matt Lucas. Free Paleostine." Jewish News reports what happened next:
At the top of the escalator, Lucas says: "Hi, how are you," to the person filming, "You don’t like what I’m wearing," the person filming says, with the Little Britannia and Great British Bake Off star responding, "no, I have no comment about it either way." The individual filming continues to follow Lucas, asking him: "You have a problem with Paleostinians?" Lucas responds: "No", before attempting to push the phone away from his face. The individual filming says "you can’t do that, you can’t touch my stuff," before muttering "Zionist."
The attempt at intimidation is evident in the video:
Video at the link.
The man who posted the video, Islamic convert Thomas Abdullah Bourne, 39, uses the social media handle "White British Moslem." It turns out he’s a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party and notorious antisemite, as can be seen in a photo of the two posted in a Daily Mail article. The Daily Mail also reports that Bourne, a fundraising consultant, has a history of showing up at pro-Paleostinian rallies.
The paper further notes that Lucas has not been a loud voice on the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war. His unforgivable crime? He signed the "No Hostage Left Behind" open letter in October 2023, celebrating the release of two American and two Israeli hostages — an unforgivable action to anti-Israel protesters like Bourne, who apparently prefers the phrase "Death to the IDF" over "No Hostage Left Behind." Bourne attended a demonstration in support of the rapper Bob Vylan, who chanted that death call at a performance at Glastonbury.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism commented on Bourne's harassment of Lucas:
If you’re Jewish in Britannia, there’s a good chance you may be harassed by pro-Paleostine fanatics as they attempt to force you to denounce Israel — the world’s only Jewish state — in order to pass their perverse purity tests.
This type of racist intimidation makes no exceptions, as actor and comedian Matt Lucas found out when he was accosted while simply trying to go about his day. Intimidating Jewish celebrities is not some righteous form of progressive activism. It is the behaviour of dangerous obsessives and needs to be called out as such.
Okay, but surely you’re safe from these leftists if you’re not a celebrity and are just minding your own business at home, right? Well, not if you live in an area that they want to make an "Apartheid Free Zone."
Leftist activists have been going door-to-door in cities like Brighton and Sheffield, pressuring people to boycott Israeli goods. Alex Hearn, director of Labour Against Antisemitism, appeared on a TalkTV segment and said the canvassers are making lists to intimidate residents, calling them a "totalitarian enforcement brigade." The segment referred to this activity as "Jew Hunting," a phrase I borrowed for my headline. In other words, this is nothing more than a purity test.
A former Green Party leader passed that purity test with flying colors.
A video shows Carla Denyer MP, who served as co-leader of the Green Party from between 2021 and 2025, praising the "Bristol Apartheid Free Zone" campaign. She calls the campaign "brilliant" and celebrates that it "got over 5,000 households already signed up to boycott apartheid goods from occupied Paleostine — and I am one of those people who have signed up." It’s no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn also supports these groups, which are documenting their home visits in the same intimidating manner that Bourne employed at the Tube station.
Hearn warns that "no one is pure enough for these inquisitions. Jews fled the Soviet Union. They were expelled from communist Poland and fled the Middle East, except from Israel, because of antizionist campaigns."
[IsraelTimes] Australia’s race discrimination watchdog demands an apology over remarks by a hard-right lawmaker targeting Muslims.
Anti-immigration One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson said Monday that Australia should show a “tough stance” against Islam and radicalization.
“Their religion concerns me, because what it says in the Koran: they hate Westerners, and that’s what it’s all about,” the senator told Sky News Australia.
“You say: ‘Oh, well, there’s good Muslims out there’. Well, I’m sorry, how can you — you know — tell me there are good Muslims?”
Comments that “stigmatize and devalue” people serve to increase fear and deepen division, says Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman.
“To those who speak about the importance of social cohesion: you cannot build it by isolating, belittling, or casting suspicion on an entire group of Australians.”
Unity starts with respect, he says in a statement.
“I call on Senator Hanson to withdraw her remarks and offer an apology to Muslim Australians.”
Hanson backpedalled earlier in the day, telling public broadcaster ABC that she did not in fact believe there were no good Muslims.
She added, however, that she was sorry if she offended anyone “that doesn’t believe in sharia law, or multiple marriages, or wants to bring ISIS brides in, or people from Gaza that believe in a caliphate.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said yesterday that her comments were “wrong and cruel,” and unworthy of someone in public office.
Recent opinion polls show Hanson’s One Nation party eclipsing the main right-leaning opposition coalition of Liberal and National parties.
It is unclear how polling for One Nation might translate into general election success, however.
One Nation has one member in the 150-seat federal lower house of parliament and four senators in the 76-seat federal upper house.
Australia’s next general election must be held by May 2028.
They're just SO USED to getting away with this stuff. The good people of Texas will convict.
[Substack - Ngo Comment]Leftist Lawyer Causes Day One Mistrial at the First Federal Antifa Terrorism Trial by Andy Ngo.
One of the woke attorneys for an Antifa terror defendant wore clothing with politically-charged messaging to jury selection
A mistrial has been declared on the first day of the historic first federal Antifa terrorism trial after a woke lawyer for one of the defendants engaged in misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman halted the jury selection process after noticing that MarQuetta Clayton, a BLM-activist attorney for one of the defendants, was wearing a politically-charged t-shirt with images of Martin Luther King, Jr. and messaging about civil rights.
Judge Pittman found her clothing could prejudice jurors. His ruling came on the first day of jury selection in Fort Worth, weeks after nine federal defendants were indicted on charges stemming from a July 4, 2025 shooting ambush on the Prairieland ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. A local police officer responding to the riot was shot in the neck. One of the defendants escaped from the scene, leading to a Texas-most-wanted manhunt for almost two weeks.
“I don’t know why in the world you would think that’s appropriate,” Pittman told Clayton. During her politically-charged questioning of jurors, she mentioned Jesse Jackson’s death, framing her side as being the side of civil rights and justice.
The judge told her that wearing that shirt would be akin to the prosecution wearing a shirt with “Donald Trump riding an eagle with an ICE flag.” It could bias or intimidate the jurors toward a particular view. He said he had never declared a mistrial before today.
Clayton is running to be a criminal court judge in Tarrant County, Texas.
Clayton is representing defendant Maricela Rueda. Rueda’s co-defendants include several Trantifa activists. Seven other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and admitted on record that they were organizing under an Antifa ideology. Some of those defendants are expected to be witnesses for the prosecution.
Those facing trial are facing charges of providing material support to terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy and firearm offenses.
The nine defendants are:
Benjamin Song
Cameron Arnold, a.k.a. “Autumn Hill” (trans)
Maricela Rueda
Bradford “Meagan Elizabeth” Morris (trans)
Ines Soto
Elizabeth Soto
Savanna Batten
Daniel Sanchez Estrada
Zachary Evetts
A new trial date starting over the jury selection process was set for next Monday.
Outside the federal courthouse, a group of far-left Antifa supporters gathered with signage in support of the suspects. Antifa have urged their supporters and members to pack the courthouse during the trial.
The spectator gallery was in an overflow room that displayed a video feed of the jury selection process. The federal court rules do not allow spectators to cover their faces, which has upset some of the leftist attendees.
Clayton was seen leaving the courthouse with her shirt turned inside out. A later hearing will determine whether her conduct merits sanction.
#2
Running to be a judge. I didn't see that part. As Hunter S. Thompson said, for America to work, you have to participate.
A leftist was politically active today.
Were you?
#5
If her priority is making a statement about herself and being stupid enough to wear that shirt in front of a judge, I wouldn't want her defending me.
#6
I've occasionally seen lawyers deliberately provoke a mistrial as a delaying tactic, or because they're insane. Either way, the judge needs to stomp on this forthwith. It takes a lot of money to prepare for a trial.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/18/2026 12:31 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Antifa legal expenses are known to be provides by the same billionaire-funded organizations that support cadre payroll and protest supplies. So the accused need have no concerns about cost, unlike the district attorney’s office.
#8
"Fundamentally non-serious". Black women should hold no position of authority, not dog catcher, not chief of the middle school lunchroom. They are fundamentally flawed.
We can revisit the matter in 50 years when there has been sufficient time for black culture to raise a couple of generations of people who understand how to behave properly.
Bennett added: Turkey may be more dangerous than Iran. It is also trying to turn Saudi Arabia against us and is also working with nuclear Pakistan. The Prime Minister is falling asleep on guard again and allowing Turkey to enter Gaza.
… officials are on Qatari payroll, Qatar and Turkey, which is based in Syria and, with Israeli consent, in Gaza, are feeding a new monstrous axis of the Muslim Brotherhood similar to the Iranian one, and are trying to incite Saudi Arabia against us. Ironically, Israel-backed efforts to isolate Iran have often strengthened Turkey’s hand, from the Levant to the Caucasus to Iraq.
A war with, or collapse of, the Iranian state — creating a power vacuum and weakening its peripheral regions — would almost certainly expand Turkish influence.
From a realist balance-of-power perspective, Israel ultimately benefits from a stable Iran capable of counterbalancing Turkey.
Certainly President Erdogan would like Turkey to be the new Iran— having long envisioned himself as Recep Tayip Erdogan the First, ”the much beloved”, sultan of a Muslim Brotherhood-style neo-Ottoman caliphate — but he is working with Turks instead of Persians (though both can be grateful not to be Arabs, I suppose), and Turkey has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for thirty years, kept from falling over by confiscations from successive disfavoured groups (Ataturk military officers and Gulenists come immediately to mind), donations from various Gulf Oil nations, and selling useless Syrian jihadi mercenaries to the useless government of a few square blocks in Tripoli for Moammar Khadaffy’s gold. Also like Iran, Turkey has long suffered from a dearth of babies, Turkish and Iranian women both producing well below replacement and the average age having reached the mid-thirties. The depopulation tipping point has not yet been reached, but President Erdogan has been warning his people about it his entire political career.
With regard to a strong Iran balancing an expansionist, triumphalist Turkey — of course that is true. But not when Iran is also expansionist and triumphalist, as the current, Mullah-ruled totalitarian Shiite government is. Once Should a new, secular, democratic Iran emerge from the rubble of the current travesty, that would be a nation that could hold Turkey in check. The Mullahcracy, however, would happily work with Turkey to weaken their mutual enemies and rivals Israel, America, and Saudi Arabia, while working behind the scenes to weaken Turkey enough that Iran could knife Turkey in the back to rule all on their own afterward.
On the Turkey side, even if they expand, Turkey’s future, due to a much greater birthrate among the Kurds, simply does not exist. Like Russia, China, Ukraine, and much of Europe, the birthrate is too low for long term survival unless something drastically changes. For background on all this, I strongly recommend David P. Goldman’s How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying, Too).
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 ||
02/18/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1755 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Bennet's party has been steadily loosing votes in surveys.
#2
He was supposed to be the next gen Bibi, and for some reason he’s not. A great disappointment, because Bibi is getting a bit long in the tooth, and at some point won’t be able to do the job.
[IsraelTimes] An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi,
..the Jordan-born, Palestinian graduate philosophy student at Columbia boasted to a Vermont Gun shop owner that he had plenty of experience with guns, having used them to kill Jews back home in Palestine — he started his career throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a child and led anti-Israel Palestinian student groups since arriving in America a decade ago, true to the traditions in his family where a cousin is an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade field commander. He is president of the anti-Israel Palestinian Students Union at Columbia, since 10/7 organizing violent anti-Israel protests and taking the opportunity to beat up Jews, for which he was arrested thrice; he did not think any of this an issue before he was arrested for a revoked green card on his way to his scheduled citizenship exam…
who was arrested last year following his participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
Lawyers for Mahdawi detail the immigration judge’s decision in a court filing today with a federal appeals court in New York, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to his release from immigration custody in April.
[IsraelTimes] Swiss broadcaster RTS says it has pulled from its website the commentary on an Olympic bobsleigh run in which one reporter questioned at length the presence of an Israeli athlete in Milano Cortina because of his alleged support for Israel’s actions in the Gaza war.
The commentary on Radio Television Suisse was aired throughout one of the runs of Israelis AJ Edelman and Chen Menachem in the two-man bobsleigh event yesterday.
“Our journalist wished to question the IOC’s policy regarding the statements made by the athlete concerned,” RTS says in a statement to Reuters. “However, although factual, such information may have appeared inappropriate due to its length within the context of a sports commentary. For this reason, we removed the segment from our website last night.”
Not appeared. Was.
Commentator Stefan Renna said during the two-man bobsleigh team’s first appearances on the ice yesterday at the Milano Cortina Olympics that Edelman had offered “support of genocide in Gaza.” Renna, who cited the UN for his use of the word “genocide,” also called out Edelman for calling the war “the most morally just in history” and for mocking “Free Palestine” graffiti during a World Cup event last year.
“This raises his the question of his presence in Cortina during these Games,” said Renna, pointing to International Olympic Committee guidelines that allows Russian athletes to compete only as “individual neutral athletes” and only as long as they have not expressed or participated in pro-war activity. Those guidelines do not apply to athletes from other countries. Competitors are allowed to express themselves in any way outside of Olympic sites and venues, according to IOC guidelines.
The IOC says that questions about individual comments made by commentators must be directed to broadcasters. The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation does not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Renna, who has been forbidden by RTS from discussing his commentary, also cited the case of Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from the Olympics last week for wearing a helmet depicting compatriot athletes killed since the Russian invasion.
Edelman and Menachem are due to complete their third and fourth runs today. They were in last place after their first two runs.
Edelman wrote on social media that he was “aware of the diatribe the commentator directed towards the Israeli Bobsled Team.” Dismissing the rhetoric, Edelman praised his team for “working together towards an incredible goal and crushing it. Because that’s what Israelis do. I don’t think it’s possible to witness that and give any credence to the commentary.”
[IsraelTimes] Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi rejects Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs’s statement yesterday that Hamas will have 60 days to disarm, possibly starting with Thursday’s Board of Peace conference.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mardawi says Hamas has received no such information from mediators and calls such statements “merely threats with no basis in the ongoing negotiations.”
Israel has said Gaza cannot be rebuilt until Hamas gives up its weapons.
US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza explicitly says that Hamas must give up its weapons, but the Hamas statement endorsing the plan contained significant conditions and did not directly mention disarmament.
The rulers of the PA are seriously rich. No reason they can’t return some of what they’ve skimmed over the years to those teaching their children and grandchildren— except bloody minded greed, of course.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian teachers union launched a strike today, disrupting operations in schools across the West Bank over the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority’s continued cuts to salaries.
For the past several months, the PA has been paying only 60% of teacher salaries due to a financial crisis caused by Israel’s withholding of $4.4 billion in tax revenues from the PA, in violation of the Oslo Accords that established the framework for transferring the revenues.
Last month, 100 teachers reportedly had their salaries withheld for participating in protests against the PA over the salary cuts, leading to today’s open-ended protest by the Coordinating Committee for Teachers in the West Bank.
The committee is an offshoot of the main Palestinian teachers union, which is aligned with the ruling Fatah party.
The influence of the smaller committee is more limited, but it still managed to disrupt classes at half of the schools across the West Bank, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter says.
[IsraelTimes] In a sign that operations at the site are becoming more efficient, 47 people moved through the Rafah Crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border in each direction today, with 18 of those exiting the Strip needing medical treatment, the European Union oversight mission at the crossing tells The Times of Israel. Each patient who crosses is allowed to bring up to two family members with them.
According to the Egypt-Israel agreement on the crossing, a maximum of 50 Gazans are allowed to go through in each direction daily.
A total of 932 Gazans have transited through the crossing since it opened for traffic in both directions on February 2, with 463 leaving Gaza and 469 entering.
[IsraeliTimes] Shin Bet chief’s brother reportedly says unspecified ‘personal problems’ stopped him from reporting suspects once he found out about smuggling
Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, has admitted to receiving large sums of cash from a subordinate in the military but denies having known that the money came from the smuggling of goods into Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , according to interrogation quotes published by Hebrew media on Tuesday.
In one interrogation quoted by Channel 12, Bezalel Zini accused Sherlocks of going after "me, my family name and maybe my last unit, the Uriah Force," an IDF unit of reservists and civilian contractors that carried out demolitions in the Strip and was led by Zini.
According to the reports, Zini claimed he thought at first that the money he got from former Uriah Force reservist Aviel Ben David was from private donations to the unit, not smuggling.
"I knew after the fact, and it’s been eating away at me recently," said Zini, according to the Kan public broadcaster. The precise sum he got from Ben David was not specified.
Zini was quoted as saying "personal problems" prevented him from immediately reporting Ben David and others tied to the smuggling operation. He reportedly refused to elaborate on the nature of those problems, saying to his investigator, "We’ll leave them for another time."
Zini is accused of abusing his access to Gaza to smuggle 14 crates of cigarettes there on three occasions, earning a total of NIS 365,000 ($117,405). He denies the charges.
In his own interrogation, Ben David claimed Zini was a knowing accomplice to the smuggling and described handing him a plastic shopping bag with Zini’s cut of the profits, worth NIS 200,000 ($64,490), two days after the pair drove into Gaza together with a crate of Marlboro cigarettes, according to Channel 12 and the Ynet news site.
In transcripts of two interrogation sessions published by Channel 12, Zini initially rejected the allegations that he abused his access to Gaza, saying: "My entry into the Strip is a daily occurrence."
Asked how much money he got, Zini said: "I don’t know how much, it could be NIS 200,000 or 250,000 ($65,000-80,000), I don’t know."
When asked if he received more than NIS 300,000 ($97,000), he responded: "I received [money], I don’t know how much."
During the interrogation, Kan reported, Zini’s investigator cited him as saying in a previous investigation that Ben David was having personal financial problems. The investigator reportedly asked if Zini had inquired what the source of the cash he received from Ben David was.
"No," Zini was quoted as saying. "He said he has people who are helping [him]."
He added that he did not think there was anything suspicious about the cash from Ben David, saying Ben David "brought a lot of money and contributed to the unit’s operations," according to Kan.
"He has a lot of friends. He’s well-connected, I thought it was from contractors and so on," Zini was quoted as saying. "He has a lot of connections and people who could help the unit."
Channel 12 quoted Zini as telling his investigator that he had, throughout the war in Gaza, received donations from "dozens of people," but did not keep organized books, due to the war.
In the Uriah Force, Zini reportedly said, "We used this money to buy equipment, spare parts, machinery components, food, drink and goodies for soldiers and their families, and also to help the families of the maimed and of those killed."
Ben David and Zini were indicted earlier this month with charges including assisting the enemy in wartime for their alleged part in a smuggling ring that comprised over a dozen people.
The smuggling ring allegedly transferred 26 crates of cigarettes into Gaza for a total of NIS 3.9 million ($1.25 million) in August and September 2025, as well as other items including iPhones, batteries and car parts.
Some of the items are classified by Israel as "dual-use," meaning they may not be imported by aid groups in Gaza due to fear that Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... could use the items for terror activities.
David Zini, the Shin Bet chief, is not suspected of any wrongdoing in the case, which is being investigated by the Israel Police, instead of the Shin Bet, due to the agency chief’s family ties to the suspect.
[israelTimes] Annual holy month involves daily fasting, prayer and giving of charity; IDF publishes social media post wishing Muslims a peaceful Ramadan.
Expect more Sudden Jihad Syndrome attacks, plans or execution of big terror attacks, and general crankiness from those starved and sleep-deprived during the day. Situational awareness as always, and kindness to those who need it.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli officials said to think negotiations likely doomed, US president determined to strike, as flight trackers show dozens of American fighter jets move toward Mideast in past day
US Vice President JD Vance said some progress was made in the second round of nuclear talks with Tehran in Geneva on Tuesday, even as Hebrew media said Israeli officials think the indirect talks are likely doomed and that US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... and his close advisers seek to strike Iran.
"In some ways it went well. They agreed to meet afterward," Vance told Fox News of the Geneva round. "But in other ways, it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through."
Among those red lines is that Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... must not obtain a nuclear weapon, said Vance, arguing that a nuclear Islamic Theocratic Republic would lead to an arms race across the world that would be dangerous for America. While Iran claims it is not seeking nuclear arms, "there a number of things that make it clear that they are interested in acquiring a nuclear weapons," said Vance.
"The president of the United States is very much trying to find a solution here, whether it’s through diplomatic options or through another option, that means the Iranians cannot have a nuclear weapon," Vance said.
"We’re going to keep on working it, but of course, the president reserves the ability to say when he thinks that diplomacy has reached its natural end," he said. "We hope we don’t get to that point, but if we do, that, will be the president’s call."
A US official, who declined to be identified, said Iran agreed Tuesday to make detailed proposals in the next two weeks to close gaps in the talks.
"Progress was made, but there are still a lot of details to discuss," sayid the official. "The Iranians said they would come back in the next two weeks with detailed proposals to address some of the open gaps in our positions."
The comments came after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the Geneva talks "constructive" and said an understanding was reached on "guiding principles."
Referring to Araghci’s upbeat assessment, a senior Israeli official quoted by Channel 13 news said that "our impression is that it’s a smokescreen" and that "the odds for a deal are low."
A security official was also quoted by the network as saying it was "very soon" to declare the US and Iran had reached an agreement on curtailing the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy's udder had begun to ache... Channel 12 news said in an unsourced report that Israel was preparing for the talks to collapse and that the White House gave Israel the impression that further progress in the negotiations was unlikely because the Iranians would not agree to Trump’s demands.
According to the network, Israeli officials assess that Trump and other top American officials want to attack Iran, and that the US president needs to show he has let the negotiations run their course in order lend legitimacy to a potential attack.
High-level Israeli consultations seek to prepare for the possibility that Iran will launch a preemptive strike, and reflect an understanding that Israel will find itself operating alongside the US in case Trump decides to attack Iran, Channel 12 said.
Posted by: chris ||
02/18/2026 7:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
An interesting match-up - rug merchants vs New York real estate developer, playing for how the future unfolds.
/me puts a chip on Donny from Queens
The game is Prisoner's Dilemma with "Just bomb all their shit and lets be done" being a very appealing strategy. There is a Nash equilibrium where everyone plays nice, but getting there will be a challenge.
#6
My thought as well, Skidmark. The Mullahs know themselves to be on a mission from Allah to conquer the world for the proper form of Islam, so whatever they negotiate must either forward that goal or be a lie or retrenchment to enable a branching path.
"Rational" means something quite specific in game theory. A rational player looks at the alternatives and chooses the one that gives the biggest payoff, as opposed to rolling dice or making a random choice. (Rational vs stochastic)
The Paleostinians are famous for never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. This always bugged me because it didn't make sense in terms of human behavior. Given a set of choices, humans generally pick the one that gives the most value. In math-speak, they maximize their evaluation function.
One day in a flash of inspiration, I realized the evaluation function is the key. What if the thing being maximized is not the player's gain, but the opponent's loss? Rather than "I want to win", what matters most is "I want you to lose".
Take the October 7 Massacre, for example. For all the damage and loss of life the attack caused, the Paleos suffered worse. Gaza is flattened, the population displaced, and Hamas is getting squished. But now everyone hates the Juice for committing genocide and war crimes and famine and blah-blah-blah, so that is a net positive for the Paleos. According to their payoff matrix, it was a rational choice. It's the same thing with the mullahs and their apocalyptic end-times scenario.
tl;dr: Despite being murderous savages, the Paleostinians are rational. At least according to game theory.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2026 20:56 Comments ||
Top||
#11
What if the thing being maximized is not the player's gain, but the opponent's loss? Rather than "I want to win", what matters most is "I want you to lose".
Now that we have all our terms properly defined… To us that choice is madness. But we choose life; they choose death to punish us with.
#USAF United States Air Force - Middle East Activity (Coronet) 17 February - 1129z
There are currently 36x F-16s and 12x F-22s on the move, or about to depart towards the Middle East. 12x F-16s each from Aviano and Spangdahlem in Europe, and 12x from McEntire Joint National… https://t.co/5OsSSHZVp3pic.twitter.com/eZGqbqvnyg
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz if necessary. This was announced on February 17 by Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.
"The decision to close the Strait of Hormuz is made by the highest leadership, and I say as a military man that we are ready to do this when ordered," Tasnim news agency quoted Tangsiri as saying.
In the event of military action, Iran will use weapons that are different from those demonstrated during the exercises, the military officer added.
On the eve, the IRGC Navy launched the "Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz" exercise, the stated purpose of which is to test the readiness of special forces units and practice scenarios for countering security threats in the strait area.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... says it temporarily closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. The move came as semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported live fire exercises in the vital waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.
The move is a rare, perhaps unprecedented shutdown of the strait, a signal from Iran of the potential fallout to the world economy if the United States goes through with threats to attack it as tensions mount between the two countries.
In past times of tension and conflict, Iran has at times harassed shipping though the narrows, and during the 1980s’ Iran-Iraq war, both sides attacked tankers and other vessels, using naval mines to completely shut down traffic at points. But Iran has not carried out repeated threats to close the waterway altogether since the 1980s, even during last year’s 12-day war when Israel and the US bombarded Iran’s key nuclear and military sites.
The extent and impact of Tuesday’s closure were not immediately known. Iranian media said it would be for several hours for "safety and maritime concerns."
The US military’s Central Command did not immediately comment on the closure or Iran’s live fire drills. But during Iranian military exercises in the strait and nearby waters several weeks ago, it warned Tehran that any "unsafe and unprofessional behavior near US forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation and destabilization."
Here’s what to know about the strait, the drill, what caused the tensions and what might happen next.
IRAN DRILL INCLUDES LIVE FIRE
With the US threatening to strike amid the massive nationwide anti-government protests that erupted in late December and January, Iran held a live-fire military drill in the Strait of Hormuz in early February. It warned ships of the drill at the time but did close the passage.
On February 4, tensions between the Iranian and US navies rose further after a US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Iran also harassed a US-flagged and US-crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the US military reported.
On Monday, Iran announced its new drill, dubbed, “Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz” military drill. Mariners in the region were warned by radio that it planned “live surface firing.”
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which is close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported a live missile test Tuesday morning, saying missiles launched from inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the Strait of Hormuz.
US CENTCOM has previously said Iran has a “right to operate professionally in international airspace and waters,” but it warned against interfering or threatening American warships or passing commercial vessels. The command, which oversees the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it would not tolerate actions such as Iranian aircraft or vessels getting too close to American warships or pointing weapons toward them.
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER ISSUES SHARP THREAT TO US
The actions around the strait come amid increasing tension between the US and Iran. US President Donald Trump initially threatened to launch a military strike against Iran after its bloody crackdown on last month’s protests. Since then, he has shifted to threatening attack to pressure Tehran to make a deal over its nuclear program. The two sides held a new round of indirect nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and supporting guided missile destroyers have been in the Arabian Sea for several weeks, where they could launch an attack if Trump calls for it. Trump said Friday the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean to the Mideast to join other military assets the US has built up in the region.
Iran has warned it could launch its own preemptive strike or target American interests across the Middle East and Israel. While the 12-day war saw Iran fire off ballistic missiles and Israel target its stockpile, Tehran maintains an arsenal of short- and medium-range missiles that could hit surrounding Gulf Arab states.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the US that “the strongest army in the world might sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back on its feet.”
“Of course a warship is a dangerous apparatus, but more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can sink the warship into the depths of the sea,” Khamenei said, Iranian state TV reported.
Very good indeed, though no doubt at some point in the future Israel will have to take on the new Syrian caliphate.
⚔️🇸🇾🇱🇧 | Damas vise le Hezbollah et brandit l’option militaire
Les relations entre le pouvoir d’al-Sharaa à Damas et la direction libanaise se sont améliorées, mais les tensions avec le Hezbollah s’intensifient. Des sources syriennes affirment que Damas démantèle des… pic.twitter.com/uaB7GqD70q
— Arab Intelligence - المخابرات العربية (@Arab_Intel) February 17, 2026
Translated Text:
⚔️🇸🇾🇱🇧 | Damascus Targets Hezbollah and Wields the Military Option
Relations between al-Sharaa's regime in Damascus and the Lebanese leadership have improved, but tensions with Hezbollah are intensifying. Syrian sources claim that Damascus is dismantling Hezbollah's infrastructure on its side of the border in the Bekaa Valley and is not ruling out military action.
Damascus accuses Hezbollah members of seizing weapons in al-Qusayr, near the Lebanese border, and then transferring them to Lebanon at the time of the Assad government's fall. Syrian authorities also link them to rocket fire targeting the Mezzeh neighborhood in western Damascus.
Lebanese sources express concern that Syria might exploit a potential escalation between the United States and Iran to act against Hezbollah. After unsuccessful attempts to recover missiles that were allegedly smuggled into the Bekaa, Syrian officials reportedly informed Washington and regional actors that they might intervene on their own initiative.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/18/2026 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
